Trade, Colonialism and Rivalries over India

 

We tend to picture a Redcoat Sahib commanding a regiment of Sepoys when we think of early colonialism in the Indian subcontinent. Some among us a little better read in history would think of the lurid Portuguese Inquisition of Goa. The tale of trade and colonialism in the region, though, is far more intricate and seething than one might imagine.

The story begins when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in the year 1453, which cut off Europe’s access to the east. This inspired ‘The Age of Discover’, during which many European powers dispatched expeditions to find an alternate route to the “Indies”. One such expedition was of Vasco da Gama, who sailed around the African continent and across the Arabian Sea to dock at Calicut. This voyage, unlike many others, was successful thanks to the ample aid and guidance it received from various African and Indian agents along the way. The Portuguese had secured a route to the East Indies. Trade flourished between the western coast of India and Portugal. With increasing wealth and confidence, the  Portuguese steadily gained influence in the region, conquering Goa towards the end of the 16^th century. This was the beginning of the four century-long rule of the Konkan under the Portuguese Crown.

Knowledge of this newly discovered route to India gradually made it to other European powers. It became fashionable for wealthy countries to establish East India Companies of their own to trade in the Indian Ocean, with the French, Danes, Swedes and Austrians all trying their luck. One of the first, and arguably most successful of these, was the Dutch East India Company(Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie). It is said to be the first multinational conglomerate in its true sense and also to have started off the practice of corporate globalisation. It is even credited as the first company to have its shares sold on a stock market. While it followed suit of the Portuguese in establishing a presence on the Indian mainland, it went on to control parts of Southeast Asia which proved to be highly profitable. Lamentably, typical of colonial activity at the time, the natives of the areas under Dutch influence were faced with great anguish.

As multiple countries gained influence in the subcontinent, India increasingly became a front for conflicts that originated in Europe. The geopolitics and power dynamics between European powers could be gauged by the activity between their respective colonial organisations in India. The case of the Bombay Archipelago is an example of this. The Portuguese gave these islands as dowry in a political marriage to the British to gain their support in countering Spain. In another instance, as the Seven Years War raged on in the West, British forces in India clashed in numerous battles with the French. The British ultimately captured all French territories in the subcontinent and maintained control over them until peace was achieved in Europe. The Dutch East India Company too was disbanded due to the defeat of the Netherlands in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, after which the British took control of the Dutch East Indies.

Before I end, let us take a trip up the western coast of India. It’s the year 1781 and the Arabian Sea is busier than it has been in a long time. We started off from Cape Comorin and now approach the port of Cochin. Ships with the Dutch Naval Jack anchor here, but at this moment there is panic among the Dutchmen as the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War ensues in Europe. We travel northwards on the Malabar coast and soon sight the obviously European fort of Mahé just off the coast, the only French fort built on Indian soil. We continue our trajectory to the port of Mangalore, where we spot ships of the Austrian East India Company sponsored by Nawab Hyder Ali leaving for Europe stocked with Indian merchandise. After a relatively longer journey, we arrive at Goa, where the Europeans have been present the longest, where ships arrive from and leave to Portugal more often than anywhere else. After the final stretch of our trip, we arrive at the islands of Bombay, which are in the process of being merged into a unit through land reclamation.

The British headquarters will soon be shifted here, and continue to be one of the centres of colonial power in India until Independence.

The British will soon come to control most of these territories. But for the time being, this stretch of the Indian coast is representative of the complex and multi-faceted story of Indian colonialism and its many characters, far from the abridged image of the Redcoat Sahib and his Sepoy regiment.

~Dyuvan D M - A Level